Steam injector



Dec. 7 1926. 1,609,415

N. T. M KEE STEAM INJECTOR.

Filed June 19. 1925 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR NEAL 1'. M KEE ATTORNEW.

Dec. 7,1926;

. N. T. M KEE STEAM INJECTOR Filed June 19, f

1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR NEALT M K e5 ATTORN EYS.

Patented Dec. 7, 1926.

UTE sr NEAL T. MCKEE, F BRON'XVILLE, NEW-YORK, ASSIGNOR'TO THE SUPERHEATER COM- PANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

STEAM IN J EGTOR.

Application filed June 19, 1925. Serial No. 38,196.

This invention relates to steam injectors and particularly to. that typethereof that v is-operated by the exhaust steam from an engine. The principal object of my invention is to improve upon a control system for an exhaust steam injector, such as disclosed in United States Patent No. 1,531,004, granted to Malcolm Hard and William A. BuckbeqMarch 24;, 1925.

More specifically the present invention is directed to a construction for regulating the operation of an automaticvalve such as disclosed in said co-pending application and which valve is intended to permit the admission of steam to the injector only when live steam is being delivered to the engine.

Exhaust steam injectors of the type to which the present invention relates, are provided with means for supplying live steam to the injector for operating the injector as a live steam injector at such times when the amount of exhaust steam available is insuflicient to insure the proper functioning of the injector. V In the control system disclosed in the patent above referred to, the automatic valve is caused to operate to cut 0E the supply of auxiliary live'steam to the injector and change over to exhaust steam -when ever the throttle of the engine is opened to admitlive steam to the cylinders thereof. It has been found, however, to be desirable to prevent the above described operation of the automatic valve from occurring until the engine has attained or exceeded a certain predetermined speed, be-

cause at very low speeds the exhauststeam is delivered to the injector in a series of :pulsations; the time interval between the pulsations being so great that the continuity of the jet of the injector is interrupted, with the result that the injector spills water be-- tween such pulsations.

The principal object of this invention is to prevent the change over of the automatic valve until the engine has reached a certain predetermined speed, thereby overcoming the difficulties above noted; This and other objects will be apparent from the following what diagrammatically a control system according to the present invention installed upon a locomotive; Fig. 2 is a detail of the valve and valve operatingmeans shown in Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a similar view of a different constructional example, and Fig. 4 is a detailed longitudinal section through the in jector.

As shown in Fig. 1, the exhaust steam injector which is indicated generally by the numeral 10, is supplied with exhaust steam through the conduit 11, which is connected with the exhaust steam line of the engine. For the purpose of supplementing the pressure of the exhaust steam, and for operating the injector as a live steam injector,'at such 'times when the supply of exhaust steam is insuflicient to securethe' desired injector action, live steam is admitted to the injector through the pipes 12 and 13 respectively. This live steam is supplied. to the pipes 12 and- 13 through the automatic valve 14, con-' nected by the pipe 15 with a steam turret 16. The pipe 13 supplies supplementary live steam which is used to supplement the action of the exhaust steam delivered through the pipe 11, while the pipe 12v supplies auxiliary livesteam which is used in connection with the supplementary live steam, and is supplied only at such times when there is no exhaust steam available; the injector working entirely with live steam when the automatic valve is open to supply steam through both of the pipes 12 and 13. The constructional details of the automatic valve 14 form no part of the present'invention, but

as diagrammatically illustrated is of the type disclosed in the Letters Patent of the United States No. 1,578,978 granted March 30, 1926 to Louis Friedmann and Hans Deutsch.

In order that the operation ofthe present invention may .be clearly understood, a briefdescription of the operation of the automatic valve is given. With this type of valve is provided a manually operated control valve 17, which, when opened, permits the admission of live steam from the turret 16 to the casing of the automatic valve. This live steam flows through both of the pipes 12 and 13, orthrough the pipe 13 only, de- I pending upon whether or not exhaust steam;

is available for operating the injector. a

automatic valve is moved by the pressure" of the steanrflowingto the automatic valve casing'from the pipe 15 to open thepipe 12 andpermit this latter steam-to flow through the'pipe 12 to the injector. The casing ofthc automatic valve is also connected by a pipe 19 with a fluid pressure'actua'ted means 20,

mounted within the injector 10; said'fiuid, pressure means belng adapted to open the exhaust steam valve 21 against the pressure of the exhaust steam flowing-through the conduit 11. When the automatic valve is held" in positionto'close the auxiliary live steam pipe, it alsoopens-the-pipe19 to the pressure of the live steam in the automaticvalve casing,. thus permitting the flow or" steam through pipe 1.9"to operate the fluid pressure means 20 and open the exhaust steam valve '21;' i

v In order to prevent the actuation of the automatic valve to' open the'pipe' 12-and the exhaust steam valve 21' before-theengine is I operating at a predetermined rate out speed,

I propose interposing between the automatic valve and the-main live steamline of the engine, a control device, which will prevent the passage ofthe' steam "through the pipe 18juntil the locomotive has; reached a predetermined speed."

In the form shown in Fig: '1' this device.

consists of valve 22.:having:connected to,

its stem. 23a centrifugal governor 24 are ranged to be driven by any suitable means, such as the bevel gears'25,counter-shaft 26,

chain '27, and sprockets28, 29, to cause the governor to open" the -,valve 22 whenever the speed of the locomotive reaches or exceeds a certain definite rate asfor example, five milesan. hour;

Any suitable typeof governor and valve construction maybe employed. inthe example illustrated, the; valve stem' 23 is slidably mounted within a shaft 30, which shaft carries at" its lower end one of the bevel gears 25. The governor 24'. comprises a pairof balls' 31, innaccordance with the usual construction of 'ClBVlCES of 'lLlIlS which are" conne'cted-as'by-the. links 32 Wltll' a sleeve 33; said sleeve'heing rotatable with respect to the valve stem 23, but fixed against longitudinal movement thereon, Rotation is imparted tothe'governor balls by means of a second sleeve 34: fixedly secured upon the hollow shaft 30'and connectedas. by the links 35 with the linlzs 32."

character,

The operation of the device shown in Fig. l is as follows: Assuming that the handle 17 been manipulated to supply steam from the turret 10' to the automatic valve, if no steam is being supplied to the engine, that is to say, the throttle of the engine is closed, live steam tromthe pipe 15 will pass through the automatic valve, to the pipes 12 and 13 by which it will be delivered to the injector. Under these conditions, the injector will operate entirely upon live steam. It now the throttle of the enginebe opened, livesteam under pressure will flow to the small pipe 18, but will not 'be-per mitted to reach the automatic: valve casingbecause oi the valve 23 until the locomotive has reached the desired speed; The gover nor 2% is so adjusted that when 'the'loco= motive has reached a speed such that the time interval between pulsationsiof the exhaust steamavailable through the pipe 11 is reduced and the flow of steam through the pipe 11 is substantially,regular, thevalve 22 will open to aermit' the steam to flow through the pipe 18 to the automatic valve casing. The pressure oi this steam will cause the automatic valve to be actuated to? the posit-1011 111 which. the auXrhary' llVQ' steam pipe 12 is closed to prevent steam from the conduit 15 from passing through said pipe to theinjector, but will permit a limited amount of live steam to pass through the pipe lii l orsupplementing the injector action orthev exhaust steam through the pipe 11. In this position-of the automatic valve, steam is admitted through. the pipe '19., to the fluid pressure means 20 and theexhaust steam valve 21 is opened thereby;

In the term shown in Fig. 3 the pipe 18 is placed in con'nnunication with the main live steam pipeby means'ot a valveiopera-- tively connected with the reverse lever-40. In this form of the invention, advantage is taken of the practical fact that when the locomotive is running atlow speedsgthe valve motion is almost invariably placedin full gear, that is to the engine is working with full cut-off. hen the speed is increased, the cut-off is shortened by moving the reverse lever from the dottedline posi-- tion shown in Fig. 3 to the full line position. With the form shown in Fig.3"instead of the governor controlled valve shown in Fig. l, I employ a slide valve 50 mounted within a steam chest 51. The slide valve 50 has its valve rod 52 connected by means of link 53 with a sleeve 54, secured to the reach rod 55. Steam is supplied'to the valve chest through the pipe l8 connected with the main steam line of the engine and: when the, valve is inu the position shown'in full lines, such-steam will pass through the pipe 18 which connects the steam chest with'th'e automatic valve. It the, reverse .leven 40 is.- moved to its full gear position for either reverse or forward travel of'the locomotive, the slide valve 50 will be moved so that thecommunication between pipes 18 and 18 is cut oil and no steam will flow through to the automatic valve.

A suitable stuffing box 57 is providedfor preventing leakage of the steam about the valve rod 52.

It will be seen that in both of the constructions herein illustrated I have provided mechanism for automatically preventing the admission of exhaust steam to the injector until the locomotive attains a predetermined rate of speed and also for automatically causing the injector to be operated as a live steam injector when the control valve 17 is opened and when the speed of the engine is .below the predetermined rate. It will be understood that the specific constructions herein disclosed are merely il-' lustrative and that many changes, variations and modifications may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of my invention- I claim:

1. In a control system for an exhaust steam injector, conduits connected to said injector for supplying thereto exhaust steam from an engine and auxiliary live steam,,an automatic valve for controlling the admission of exhaust steam and live steam to said injector through said conduits, a pipe connecting said automatic valve withthe main steam line of the engine, a valve in said pipe and mechanism, connected with a movable element of the engine, for automatically actuating said valve to control the passage of steam through said pipe in accordance with the rate of speed of said engine.

2. In a control system for an exhaust steam injector, conduits connected with said injeotorfor supplying thereto exhaust steam from an engine and auxiliary live steam, an

automatic valve for controlling the admis sion of steam to said injector through said conduits, means for admitting fluid under pressure to said automatic valve and mech anism, connected with a movable element of the engine, for preventing the passage of said fluid to said automatic valve when said engine is running below a predetermined rate of speed.

3.. In a control system for an exhaust steam injector, conduits connected with said injector for supplying thereto exhaust steam from an engine and auxiliary live steam, and mechanism, including an automatic valve and connections to a movable element of the engine, for preventing the admission of exhaust steam to said injector when said engine is operating below a predetermined rate of speed.

4. In a control system for an exhaust steam in ector, conduits for supplying to said in ector exhaust steam from an engine and auxiliary live steam, and means includ ing an automatic valve and mechanism con-- nectedfwith a movable element'of the engine for "automatically controlling the admission of steam through said live steam conduit and said exhaust steam conduit respective ly, in alternation when the engine is running. below and above a predetermined rate of speed. A I

5. In a control system for .an exhaust steam injector, conduits for supplying to said injector exhaust steam from an engine and auxiliary live steam, and means, including an automatic valve, for alternately controlling the admission of steam through said exhaust and live steam conduits, a pipe connecting said valve with the main steam line of the engine, a valve in said pipe, a speed responsive device operatively connected with a moving,

element of the engine and connections from said speed responsive device to' said last named valve.

6. In a control system for an exhaust steam injector, conduits for supplying to said injector exhaust steam from an'engine and auxiliary live steam, and means, in-

eluding an automatic valve,'for alternately controlling the admission of steam through said exhaust and live steam conduits, a pipe connecting said valve with the main steam line of the engine, a valve in said pipe, and connections from said valve to a movable element connected with the engine and whose position is indicative or" the speed of the engine for preventing the passage of steam through said pipe to said automatic valve when said engineis running below a predetermined rate of speed. I

7 In a control system for an exhaust steam injector, conduits for vsupplying to said injector exhaust steam from an engine and auxiliary live steam, and means including an automatic valve and a speed responsive device connected with a movable element of the engine, for automatically controlling the admission of steam through said live steam conduit and said exhaust steam conduit respectively in alternation whenthe en- 'gine is running below and above a predetermined rate of speed.

8. In a control system for an exhaust steam injector, a conduit for supplying to said injector exhaust steam from an engine, an exhaust steam valve adapted 'to be closed normally by the pressure of the exhaust steam in the exhaust steam conduit, fluid pressure operated means for opening said valve against the pressure of the exhaust steam, an automatic valve having a pair of pipes connected therewith, one of said pipes leading to said fluid pressure means and the other to the main steam line of the engine, an auxiliary live steam conduit connecting said injector and automatic valve, said automatic valve being constructed and arranged to permit ther-passage of steam to-said auxillaiy hve condult when: no. steam under. pres surepasses thtoughvsald other plpe, and to close: the auxiliany live-steam conduit and merit-.- ofl-the engine for pfeventifig thwpasw: sage of-steam through said r'other plpe when said engmerls oper-at1ng:.-be1ow predetermi'nedmate ofspeedi In testimony whereof I have hereuntoset my-hand.- V I NEAL "MGK EEH 

